1977 “Smokey and the Bandit”/ 1977 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am

The 1977 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am piloted by Burt Reynolds in “Smokey and the Bandit” ranks as one of the most awesomely iconic cinematic muscle cars of the 1970’s. The movie car of the 1977’s second most popular film, second only to “Star Wars”.

They used four Trans Ams for filming “Smokey and the Bandit”. All them were badly damaged during production, one of which was all but destroyed during the jump over the dismantled bridge. The Trans Ams were actually 1976 model cars with ’77 front ends.

Why Pontiac Firebird Trans Am?

Hal Needham, director of saw an advertisement for the soon-to-be-released 1977 Pontiac Trans Am and knew right away that would be the Bandit’s car, or–as Needham referred to it–a character in the movie. He contacted Pontiac and an agreement was made that four 1977 Trans Ams and two Pontiac LeMans 4-door sedans would be provided for the movie.